New video work by Alex Pelly

Live Performances by:

Rogue Squares:
Lauren Bousfield
Panic Hardware

DJ set by Shrill (Darkmatter Soundsystem)

Portals is a site-specific video installation series created by Alex Pelly for Digital Debris. It explores experimental video as a doorway for the imagination. The exhibit is comprised of works which lead the viewer on a meditation of their own subconscious, offering a fixed point of focus and sense of forward motion through color, tempo, texture, and mood. The objective is to ignite a personal journey that is guided but untethered.

With a background in narrative filmmaking, Pelly moved into an abstract video art practice as a way to free herself from the limitations of physical production. Without the restraints of budget, location, actors, or crew, she discovered a direct pathway to authentic self expression. This work has also been a gateway into communities of art, music and video, propelling her beyond obstacles of gender stereotypes, sexism and aversion to self-display.

All works are created through an analogue video process, combining modular video synthesis, effects processors, and video feedback.

Portals will be on display February 15 – March 16.

Bios:

Alex Pelly is a Canadian filmmaker and video artist based in Los Angeles. She found her beginnings within broadcast collective Dublab circa 2008, and continues to provide live visuals for their events as well as host a monthly live-streamed audiovisual show called PELLYVISION. Pelly’s work incorporates multiple generations of video technology, both analogue and digital. Frequently collaborative with musical accompaniment, her work serves as a reflection of and muse to the music simultaneously. She is the resident visualist for music series Perpetual Dawn. She has shown work at LACMA, MoMA PS1, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Hauser and Wirth Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, Coaxial Arts, Los Angeles Central Library and LA Weekly’s Artopia. Among countless other artists, Pelly has performed with Terry Riley, Suzanne Ciani, Kid606, Telecaves, Dntel, and ESP.

Rogue Squares:
As electronic experimentalists, both Carlos Giffoni and Elaine Carey had forged renowned bodies of work on their own before joining forces as duo Rogue Squares. Expanding upon Carey’s lauded work in LA duo Telecaves (as well as past and ongoing live performances with Extended Organ, Xiu Xiu, Gabie Strong, Ariel Pink, and Carla Bozulich, among others), plus Giffoni’s plentiful solo and collaborative work (with Merzbow, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Nels Cline, Jim O’Rourke, and Prurient, to name a few), Rogue Squares have recently recorded their first full length LP, following last year’s initial missive on cassette label Obsolete Units.

Lauren Bousfield:
Lauren Bousfield is a Los Angeles-based pianist and composer. She writes music for video games, television and film. She has released music under her own name and as Nero’s Day At Disneyland. Her music has been described as a hyperkinetic and symphonic take on experimental electronic music, juxtaposing sound design with traditional arrangements.

Panic Harware:
Naomi Mitchell is a designer, user, and educator of modular synthesizers. She designs and makes eurorack modules as omiindustriies and performs live under a variety of aliases, most recently, Panic Hardware. Her work focuses on rhythm and randomness and the interaction between artist and electronics.

Shrill:
Shrill is a founding member of LA’s Darkmatter Soundsystem and former member of Cindytalk.